On July 11, 2021, I was not in Cuba. In 2021, I had already been away from that beautiful island where I was born for twenty-six years. However, on that July 11, I was in Havana, that beautiful city where I grew up. My body was not there, but my heart was with thousands of brave Cubans, who, tired of so much humiliation, took to the streets to demand and fight for the freedom that was taken from our parents and grandparents by a gang of thugs since January 1, 1959.
That day, the surrender, six years prior, of the United States to the Cuban dictatorship, thanks to Barack Hussein Obama, had ceased to be a hope in the face of a regime that, instead of capitalizing on it, entrenched itself in its stubborn, impoverishing totalitarianism. On that day, the Cubans on the island were still suffering from the disaster of the regime's inept management regarding the COVID-19 epidemic. On that day, all of them, except the dictators, continued to survive amidst the scarcity of food, medicine, and basic services. The people lived in misery, while the dictators continued to mumble useless and fanciful phrases. Real life versus the wealth of Gaesa.
On that July 11, 2021, thousands of Cubans took to the streets and, for hours, overwhelmed the repressive dictatorship. It was a glorious time for all of us who dream of a free and prosperous Cuba. I can imagine, and I know, that it was a glorious time for those brave individuals who, for the first time in their lives, took their own destinies into their hands. They did not fail; we failed by not exerting more pressure on the governments of the countries where we reside to push against the murderous repressors of those brave souls who simply sought freedom—something that is normal in any democratic society, and even in many of the authoritarian regimes that have imposed themselves today in various countries.
We failed in 2021 and continue to fail in 2026. Even with that executive order from the end of January, we have not managed to exert enough pressure on the Trump Administration to act decisively against that dictatorship whose military defense capabilities are laughable, but whose media and diplomatic skills are evidently unmatched.
The suffocation of the protests on July 11, 2021, is a lesson that all Cubans, both those trapped on the island and those free outside of it, must internalize. The Cuban dictatorship has shown, throughout its macabre history, a strong survival instinct. Even now, since January 29 of this year, it has been declared a "unusual threat to the national security of the United States." A threat that is far from unusual. This totalitarian regime has been a danger to the world since its very beginnings.
On July 11, 2021, the brave were repressed in the streets across the island. For a few hours, fear was on the side of the inept dictators, but sixty years of experience in repression and murder cannot be overcome by just a few thousand brave individuals taking to the streets. "The order to engage has been given", said the ridiculous puppet with a fearful expression, while his minions unleashed the worst of what our beautiful island has produced. No one is human who represses young people, women, the elderly, and teenagers simply for asking for freedom.
They repressed without limits, knowing that their violent injustice would bring them no consequences beyond the award of a dirty medal or a diploma from their masters. They repressed without limits, aware that the disdain and condemnation from both within and outside of Cuba would have no repercussions for their crimes. Another crime added to the long list of crimes that have gone unpunished.
Thousands of crimes with a long and tragic list, crimes, massacres such as the one at San Juan Hill in January 1959; the bloodbath at the fortress of La Cabaña, under the gleeful gaze of a bloodthirsty Argentine; the sinking in international waters of the ship XX Aniversario in July 1980, the tugboat 13 de marzo, also in a fateful July but in 1994, or the shooting down of two civilian aircraft two years later, in February 1996. Also shot down over international waters.
These crimes are merely snapshots of sixty-seven years of their commission, both in Cuba and abroad. The Cuban dictatorship has not only destroyed a nation that was prosperous and self-sufficient, but it has also distorted the very foundation of the Cuban nation, expelled millions of its best sons, killed thousands of its bravest offspring, and imprisoned tens of thousands who have not subscribed to its horrific ideology and actions. It continues to do so, even today, nearly six months after its misrule was declared an “unusual threat.”
The dictatorship will undermine what remains of Cuba, but I repeat, it still dominates a significant part of the narrative in global politics and the press. It continues to defeat us, the free ones, despite the efforts each of us makes day by day, each in our own way, but all in search of the same goal: a free and prosperous Cuba. We do everything we can, but, obviously, it is not enough. We must prepare ourselves, be ready to support the brave ones who sooner or later, inevitably, will return to reclaim the streets that the heartless repression took from them in July 2021.
In July 2021, Cuba was already an unproductive wasteland, power outages suffocating the captives of the island, the scarcity of food, medicine, and basic services was widespread, and everyone thought that this failed state could not fall any lower. On this July 11, 2026, we are witnesses, sad witnesses, to the fact that this failed state sinks lower with each passing day. It descends further into immorality and savagery, as seen in its imposition of misery on its oppressed. It has fallen so low that it has taken Cubans out of what we call civilized life.
Today marks five years since those brave individuals took to the streets for a few hours. Five years later, instead of improving even slightly, their lives have only continued to descend into misery and disgrace. Every day that regime of inept buffoons survives means more months added to the reconstruction of our island. Every day they remain seated in their air-conditioned white armchairs signifies another day of blackouts, hunger, suffering, and death for millions of unfortunate souls.
Five years later, the misery has increased, and we all know, both here and there, that under that dictatorship, there is no possible solution to the debacle caused by obtuse communist totalitarianism. There is none. Inevitably, tired of so much humiliation and desperate over their misery, the moment must come when those who were once afraid have no choice but to join the brave who never feared. Each day, more people are taking to the streets with their empty cooking pots, but filled with dignity.
For weeks, they only went out at night, in isolation. For several days now, they have been going out both at night and during the day, becoming less isolated. The repression imposed by the dictatorship is not only physical but also logistical. With the power outages, they cannot charge their mobile phones or access wireless internet. The outages serve the regime by cutting off their communication; when protests grow, they completely cut off the service. They did this on July 11, 2021, and they will do it again when the brave return to repeat, even more boldly, the epic of that memorable day.
Cubans will take to the streets again; they have no other option unless they adapt to living in the Stone Age with constant repression. When they do come out, we must be ready; we need to ensure that our denunciations resonate with governments worldwide, both those on the side of freedom and those complicit with evil. We must expose not only physical repression but also the criminal communication blackout, not just to governments—who are generally slow to react—but also to the media, civil society organizations, and social media communicators.
We must help ensure that the spark, which was violently extinguished on July 11 five years ago, does not lose its fuel as it did back then. We need to make sure that those brave individuals are not left alone in the face of the predictable onslaught from the forces of repression and murder. We must make these repressors and killers aware that times have changed and that their abuses and injustices will indeed have consequences this time; their impunity has come to an end.
We must stand with them when they go out again, because they will. They will, unless those on this side who promised us a solution abandon us and want or are able to negotiate with the very ones whose misgovernance sparked the protests of July 11, 2021. Those who want or are able to negotiate with the same ones who that day ordered repression and violently suppressed brave individuals who were only asking for freedom.
They will rise again, and we must stand with them, with the Cubans on the island, in that defining hour. In that hour when they will step forward to bring life to a homeland that has been imposed with death. We need to let the brave ones on the island and those who seem to hesitate on our side know that the Cubans are not alone. Their struggle to reclaim their human dignity and material well-being, their fight for freedom, prosperity, and the right to happiness, is our struggle too. They are not alone.
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Opinion piece: Las declaraciones y opiniones expresadas en este artículo son de exclusiva responsabilidad de su autor y no representan necesariamente el punto de vista de CiberCuba.